Water Pours Into New Orleans' Ninth Ward

Storm clouds loom over Canal street while wind blows askew palm trees as the city prepares for the approaching storm caused by Hurricane Rita early Friday, Sept. 23, 2005, in New Orleans. The storm took a sharper-than-expected turn to the right on Thursday, setting it on a course that could spare Houston and nearby Galveston a direct hit. But that raised the risk that the hurricane could strike much closer to New Orleans. (AP Photo/Tracy Gitnick)

This AP story, from about 10 minutes ago, "Water Pours Into New Orleans' Ninth Ward," says that water is rising 3 inches/hour in the Old Ninth Ward of New Orleans, that a 30' waterfall has breached the repaired levee. (Reports earlier in the week stated that the levees likely failed during Hurricane Katrina due to improper construction as the levees were not breached by water--however, two weeks ago the Wall Street Journal reported that the breach of the levee on the London Canal occurred due to an errant barge driven by the Hurrican-force winds of Katrina).
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Today's Post also has a great editorial, "Go-Go Reconstruction" about the likelihood of waste and graft coming from the urban renewal and unfocused incentives pproach seemingly being adopted by the Bush Administration towards reconstruction in the areas devastated by the Hurricane. Despite CNU involvement in reconstruction planning in Mississippi, I don't expect much from big government programs these days--we are long past the days of the rural electrification initiative and the early initiatives of the Tennessee Valley Authority, and the hopeful necessity (and penultimate concern for quality and freedom from corruption) of the programs under the New Deal.

I wrote this earlier on an email list--

Earlier in the year, Mayor Nagins announced a demolition initiative (like Detroit...) comparable to the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative in Philadelphia. NTI wasn't an asset-based approach, but one of demolition and land assembly. (I like to think that I helped change the direction some with pointed criticism at a national conference held in Philly in 2003, as well as a piece in the Philly Daily News, but it was more likely the city government not having enough money and critical mass to tear everything down.)

Given that New Orleans has one of the most distinctive stocks of historic buildings of any city in North America, to say that an NTI approach is troubling is an understatement.

One thing that old urbanists and new urbanists can agree on is the primacy of the principles--urban design in all its aspects.

The Charter is a beautiful and important document.

That being said, the culture of corruption and big business in Louisiana, and what I often think of as a lag in attitude change on the part of public officials in acknowledging that the only sustainable urban revitalization strategies are asset-based (vs. traditional clearance and urban renewal car-oriented strategies) makes me not too hopeful.

I hope that the NU initiative in Mississippi could be the harbinger of a better way that could "trickle down" to Louisiana...